Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev

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Summarised Unsworn Detainee Statement (Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev, ISN 84)

Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev (born on 7 November 1973) was held in extrajudicial detention for over four years in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Batayev's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 084.

He was born in Abaye, Kazakhstan.

[edit] Identity

The DoD identified Batayev as a citizen of Uzbekistan when it released its full official list of detainee names and nationalities on May 15, 2006.^[1] But when he was released the Miami Herald reported that he was really a citizen of Kazakhstan.^[2] He was released to Kazakhstan, not Uzbekistan. The Miami Herald transliterated his name as Ihlkham Battayev.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[3][4] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[5]

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Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 21 September 2004.^[6] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. Detainee is associated with the Taliban.

1. In early 2001, detainee claims he was conscripted into serving with the Taliban by armed men in Tajikistan, who were likely affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a central Asian militant organization that directly supported the Taliban in operations against coalition forces.
2. The detainee is suspected to be a member of the IMU.

b. Detainee engaged in hostilities against the US or its coalition partners.

1. Detainee fought at Konduz, Afghanistan.
2. Detainee admitted that he prepared food for Taliban fighters while he was in Konduz, Afghanistan.
3. Detainee surrendered to Northern Alliance forces at Mazar-E-Sharif ^[sic] .
4. Detainee sustained injuries during a prison uprising in Mazar-E-Sharif ^[sic] whil in the custody of Northern Alliance forces.

[edit] Transcript

Batayev chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[7]

[edit] Testimony

Batayev was confused with whether the Tribunal was a court of law, and why he wasn’t being provided with a lawyer.

Batayev told the Tribunal he was not from Uzbekistan, he was from Kazakhstan.

Batayev explained that he had come to Tajikstan to sell apples, and in Tajikistan he was seized by men who sold him to the Taliban. The Taliban didn’t try to employ him as a fighter. They put him to work assisting in a kitchen. He was employed in this fashion for five to six months. When the Americans attacked everyone ran away and he was able to escape.

Main article: Taliban conscription

Batayev was captured the next day by Northern Alliance forces. He was sent to Mazari Sharif, and he described his experience of the uprising there. The group of men he was incarcerated with were being kept in a basement. When they were ordered out he heard shooting. He was injured by a grenade that killed most of the other men he had been with. He and other survivors were trapped for five or six days in the basement. Eventually the Northern Alliance tried burning them out, and then tried flooding them out. When he was well enough to be moved he was sent to Guantanamo.

Main article: riot at Mazari Sharif

When his testimony was over the Tribunal President thanked him for his co-operation, and commented on his white uniform.

Main article: Guantanamo captive's uniforms

[edit] Administrative Review Board Hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Batayev chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[8]

[edit] Guests

His Presiding Officer explained to Batayev that the civilians he asked about were the Presiding Officer's "guests" ^[sic] . He explained: "Some are military and the others are from the press."

His hearing was held in the same room as his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

[edit] Interview with his Assisting Military Officer

His Assisting Military Officer told his board that he met with Ilkham Turbadeyvich Batayev on October 10, 2005, for 45 minutes. The documents were translated for Batayev into Russian, not Farsi. The Assisting Military Officer described Batayev as "cooperative and very polite during the interview."

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment

1. Men from an Islamic group wanted the detainee to join the group for jihad. The detainee spent eight to ten days with three Islamic groups before being flown to Konduz, Afghanistan.
2. After staying in Konduz, Afghanistan for seven to eight months, the detainee was taken to Mazar-e-Sharif ^[sic] to be surrendered to Dostum's troops.
3. The detainee was caught smuggling $600,000 in United States currency.

b. Training

1. The detainee received training on the Kalashnikov ^[sic] and gas mask during the ninth and tenth grade.
2. In June of 2000, the detainee was part of a group of new recruits that was sent to Tajikistan for training.
3. A Foreign Government Service reported this group was transporting counterfeit United States dollars to an unidentified camp run by the Taliban when arrested in Tajikistan.

c. Connections and Associations

1. The detainee is a suspected member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) because some of the information that he provided was nearly identical to information provided by a known member of the IMU.
2. A Foreign Government Service reported the detainee as a member of the IMU.
3. IMU is a coalition of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states opposed to Uzbekistani President Islom Karimov's secular ^[sic] regime. Although the IMU's primary goal remains to overthrow Karimov and establish an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, it appears to have widened its targets to include all those perceived as fighting Islam.
4. The detainee was an associate of Adbuhalim Pakhrutdinov ^[sic] , a major supporter of Islamic extremist activities in Central Asia and a major financier of the IMU. The detainee worked for Pakhrutdinov at his business Al Baraka ^[sic] .
5. The detainee's position with AL Barakat ^[sic] was that of "cashier" and he worked on site at the company building. As a "cashier", the detainee was one of several people who received the cash money from those who sell Pakhrutdinov's products elsewhere. He then files the money away in a safe-like room.
6. The detainee was identified as a person observed at Konduz, Afghanistan fighting: ^[sic] Al Janke, Shabraghan prison; ^[sic] and Kandahar, Afghanistan.

d. Other Relevant Data:

The detainee was at Maser-e-Sharif ^[sic] during the uprising. The detainee was lined up in the courtyard with approximately 15-20 people when the shooting started. The detainee recalled running towards the stairwell and hearing gunfire coming from it. A grenade exploded and he suffered leg and back injuries.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release of transfer:

• While he was with the group of men in Tajikistan and during the several months that would follow in Konduz and Mazar-e-Sharif ^[sic] , he was never threatened with bodily harm, but always feared if he attempted to escape, he would be killed by these men.
• The detainee did not want to join the Islamic group for jihad.
• The detainee has never had any problems with the police anywhere and has never been arrested. The detainee has no knowledge of any counterfeiting to include ^[sic] , money, passport, and travel documents.
• The detainee stated all information regarding him being captured with $600,000 United States currency was false.

[edit] Response to the factors

Batayev said he had met with his lawyer, since his innterview with his Assisting Military Officer. He said he trusted his lawyer, and his lawyer told him not to answer any questions, and to refer the questioners to him. He had his lawyer's card. And said that his lawyer encouraged the Board to phone him.

[edit] Response to Board questions

Batayev's Board insisted on asking him questions, which he politely declined to answer. Of the dozen questions he was asked he declined to answer all but one, the last one, about the grenade wounds he suffered in the prison at Mazar-e-Sharif. Batayev said he had fully recovered.

[edit] Concluding statement

"Before we end, I would like to say a few words. In the past I have never met Americans, never dealt with Americans but I have heard from other people that in America you have a Democracy. Without knowing the language [spoken] in America I heard that America was a fair country that did not kill people and actually goes to help other countries that are unfaair to their people (other countries unfair to their own).I have been there for four years now and I have not seen an ounce of Democracy and I am wondering if all the things I have heard about America was a lie. The American government before was an example for other countries. You would go in and set regime for peopole of other countries who did not have their own rights. I am from Kazakhstan a country where the sun rises and [the United States] is a country where the sun sets. I have never had anything against the U.S. and cannot understand the allegations brought against me. I have never killed anyone, I have never done anything against Americans are angry because from what I have heard is someone flew an airplane into a building and maybe killed a child or someone's father or someone's brother but I didn't do that. I was never against America. I am very sad for what happened but I also have a mother and a father."

[edit] Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official.^[9][10] The Board's recommendation was unanimous. The Board's allegations were redacted. England authorized the captive's transfer from Guantanamo on November 29, 2005.

One of the unredacted statements in his Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation stated^[10]:

ISN 121 was shown a picture of the EC [enemy combatant] and identified him as a person he observed at Konduz, Afghanistan in combat (DMO-15).

[edit] Tom Johnson, Batayev's lawyer

On 9 August 2006 Batayev's lawyer, Tom Johnson, of Portland, Oregon, was profiled by the Willamette Week.^[11] Johnson remarked on how Batayev continued to keep his hopes up that he would eventually be released.

[edit] Release

The Portland, Oregon law firm Perkins Cole issued a press release on December 18, 2006 announcing Ihlkham Battayav's release.^[12] The press release stated:

The Perkins Coie team of Fortino, Tom Johnson and Cody Weston began representing Battayav, pro bono, in late 2004. The team made five trips to Guantanamo, numerous trips to the Kazakh embassy in Washington, D.C., and a trip to Kazakhstan to meet with his family, the Kazakh press and potential witnesses.

The Miami Herald reports that three of the four Kazakh detainees in Guantanamo were repatriated and set free on December 21, 2006.^[2] According to the Herald the two other released men were Abdullah Tohtasinovich Magrupov and Yakub Abahanov.

[edit] See also

• Terrorism in Kazakhstan

[edit] References